1. Field
This invention is concerned with boxes or box-like containers for holding paint rollers that are wet with paint.
2. State of the Art
Paint-applying rollers have long been known and used for rapidly painting expansive surface areas, such as walls and ceilings, in place of the usual paint brushes. Such rollers are not normally rinsed in a paint solvent at the completion of a day""s work, as are paint brushes, since they are more difficult to handle. They are usually thrown away and replaced by new ones for the following day""s work.
Several years ago a container was developed by Ronald W. Wilson for holding a wet paint brush so that it could remain wet with paint from time to time in an atmosphere of a paint solvent. U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,363 was issued for this on Jul. 30, 1996. The product made according to that patent is commercially available and works well in actual practice, and I wondered whether a somewhat similar approach might work for the usual paint-applying rollers. However, the varying sizes and varying applicator mountings of such rollers posed difficulties that I found were not easily overcome. Even though a patent on a container for a paint-applying roller (U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,576) had issued to a German inventor, Ingo Kern, in Berlin, Germany, on Feb. 7, 1989, for a wet paint roller storage container, such container included a roll of foil for wrapping the roller. The patent teaches the use of a broad and flat container for storing a paint-applying roller, the container being made to rest horizontally on a receiving surface and being hermetically sealed when closed about a received paint-applying roller wet with paint. It receives the entire applicator, handle and all, and includes an attached additional holder for a roll of foil for wrapping the wet roller. This is inconvenient and in spite of the Wilson patent, no persons skilled in the art concerned had solved the problems which I confronted in adapting the teachings of the Wilson paint brush storage patent to the storage of paint-applying rollers.
U.S. Pat. No 5,539,950 directed to a protective housing for roller covers issued the same day as the Wilson patent. That patent teaches a cover for wet paint rollers having a seal around the periphery of the cover and a channel seal, a small and curved aperture which which conforms to the shape of the shaft in order to seal the liquid coating material and fumes within the body, is provided to seal around the applicator shaft extending therethrough. However, the varying sizes of rollers and, particularly, the varying sizes and configurations of roller applicator shafts that need to be accomodated by a roller cover, would require different covers for different shaft sizes in order to provide the channel seal described by the patent.
There remains a need for a more universally applicable roller cover that maintains the wet roller stored therein in usable condition for long periods of time.
A principal objective in the making of the present invention was to provide a convenient box, preferably made of plastic, that would enable effective storage of a usual paint-applying roller, wet with paint, on a temporary basis much as does the box-like container of the aforesaid Wilson U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,363 for a wet paint brush.
According to the invention, an elongate box may be closed and substantially sealed around a paint roller filled with wet paint, while still mounted on the usual handle-provided, paint applicator. A portion of the handle-provided, paint applicator extends through an opening in the box and through deformable paint solvent absorbent material, such as plastic foam material,positioned in the opening which substantially seals the opening around the portion of the applicator extending therethrough. Paint solvent, generally water, is added to the solvent absorbent material to maintain a solvent rich (with water, moist) atmosphere in the box.
A feature of the present invention in meeting its objective is the provision of at least one outlet opening in an upstanding wall of a horizontally positionable box for passing therethrough a portion of the usual handle-provided applicator on which a paint applying roller is mounted, so that the handle extends outside the box.
An optional feature is the provision of two such openings, one in an end wall of the box and one preferably in an adjacent portion of a longitudinal side wall of the box for selectively accommodating either the usual manually operated or the usual electrically powered unit.
Another optional feature is the provision, interiorly of the box, for supporting the roller at a level above the floor of the box, and, optionally, a similar provision for supporting the roller relative to the ceiling of the box if and when the box is inadvertently turned upside down before its intended horizontal placement on a supporting surface.
Thus, the invention involves, basically, the foregoing feature in a box or box-like container for temporarily storing a manually operated and/or an electrically powered roller wet with paint.